Just got back from a church retreat at Lakeside Bible Camp on Whidby Island.  I highly recommend retreating as a church body.  It's been a number of years since we were able to do this (although we do have a similar thing on the other continent we call home.  Still not the same thing…)  Some bullet point impressions gained from the Body during our weekend away:

• We, believers in Jesus Christ, are called to worship God holistically.  See Psalm 95.  This means in our body, mind, will, emotions, and actions we must ascribe worth (find the "worth shape") to Him who is, indeed, Worthy.  The reason this is so important is because we are image-bearers of the Creator God and as such we can either be transformed to look more like him OR we can be transformed to look more like the idols we would choose to worship instead.
• Taking Gollum from LOTR as a fictitious example, choosing to worship ANYTHING that is not the true God, YHWH, has a steadily dehumanizing effect upon us.
• Since no ONE person (other than Christ Himself) is a full representation of God, we only gain a fuller insight into God's character and will in the world through involvement in the diversity of community life.
• God is challenging us to take part in worship more holistically–in facets we might not naturally lean toward (e.g. emotionally driven people may need to use their mind more, mind-driven people may need to get in touch with their feelings more as they relate to God, etc.)
• There is no such thing as a "little" church.  The fellowship I call home is a gathering of maybe 20+ adults.  This weekend I heard a few people within our body refer to it as a "little church" or a "small" body.  (I know what they meant, but I took issue with the term.) 

  Small is a relative term.  Sure, in the past there were a few hundred members and compared to the mega-churches down the road it may seem as if we are FEW.  But what I don't like about the description is that it infers deficiency in some way–almost as if it were an apology.  The term itself (or my interpretation of it) hints at insignificance and what I experienced in terms of fellowship, worship, intimacy, and reflection over the weekend was a FAR CRY from insignificant. 

  How can anything that is driven by God and His worship, fueled by agape love for one another, ignited by prayer, and lead by the Spirit be small?  If this "little body" were placed in a different cultural context (one that was perhaps less ego-driven, program oriented, and outer-appearance/numerical growth conditioned) it would be considered vibrant, healthy, and BIG.  On the other hand, I like our body because of its semblance of weakness and foolishness within our cultural context.  In those counter-intuitive ways, it smacks of Jesus and his way of doing things.  I am NOT making a value judgment on other fellowships within the body of Christ (who am I to judge how God is represented in our world?), but I guess I am trying to offer some grace to our "little body" that we might not typically give to ourselves (if that makes any sense at all.)

• Prayer is powerful.  As a Body we were able to pray individually for each family in our fellowship.  We also prayed for some known needs of others outside of our "little body".  Like the Corinthian church praying for those meeting in Philippi–too cool!
• I'm terrible at carpet ball.  I got beat by my five-year-old daughter (although I did chuck a few balls on purpose…really I did.)
• What we do in this life (for the building of the kingdom) is not in vain.  This is N.T. Wright talking through me, here, but I firmly believe that what we do in this life (from the biggest to the smallest thing) matters–it has present AND eternal worth.  That is why it is so important for us to be worshipping God with our whole selves.  We are in-training for the new heaven and the new earth that Christ will usher into being some-day.  Ya-hoo!
• Washing pots is an awesome form of worship…that's experience talking.
• Cereal time was greatly missed.  My only sadness during the weekend.
• Living water was an image that was "prayed over" our family.  This was surprising and exciting to me as the concept of "living water" has been a recurring theme that God has been revealing in guiding our family in the last few years.  I long to be filled to overflowing in that kind of aqua, or as they say in China "shui" 水.